Reading Eamon’s last post regarding Randy Lerner, I was reminded of two specific moments during Randy’s tenure; the first was when I learned that we were foregoing shirt sponsorship income to have Acorns on our shirts and the second was when I was first introduced to Randy’s vision of the club contributing back to the local community from one of the head chefs at VMF. On both occasions I felt a sense of overwhelming pride to be however loosely associated with a football club and a chairman who were taking their social responsibilities seriously.

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is nothing new but has been somewhat of a buzzword in recent years in all major corporations, particularly in America. The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities, proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development and honouring the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

Putting others first

Although we have now sold our shirt sponsorship, which given the economic climate and current financial situation is quite understandable, Aston Villa still attempt to help as many local charities and good causes as they possibly can. The club have introduced new guidelines this season that will maximise the support for local Birmingham based charities. They will continue to work with Charity Partner Acorns and also with Help for Heroes, the military ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, Marie Curie Cancer Care and Age UK amongst others.

Not all the community schemes are entirely altruistic, for example the Saturday morning and evening coaching, school holiday Development Weeks and sending coaches out to provide coaching sessions in local schools is a great way to spot talented youngsters who can then be invited to the Player Development Centre and potentially the Academy. However, it also provides a great experience for children regardless of ability at minimal cost to parents and encourages youngsters to get involved. From a parent’s perspective I only have good things to say about the community coaching programme and at just £2 per session it’s cheaper than most other activities.

The Villa Vitality programme, which is run in conjunction with Heart of Birmingham PCT, aims to encourage school children to get involved with sport and understand the importance of healthy eating and exercise. The programme is split between the school and Villa Park and includes football challenges, lessons on healthy eating, writing and recording a song in a recording studio, visiting the Ice Gym and a cookery lesson in the Villa Vitality kitchens. The Ice Gym at Villa Park is free to use for all children aged 8-16 and includes equipment specifically designed for children and teens. I have been reliably informed that it is “wicked”.

Villa in the Community

We were the first Premiership football club to set up a Community Interest Company designed to provide exciting educational and training opportunities for young people in the community and for students through from primary to further education level, and we offer the Aston Villa Disability Life Skills Programme which is delivered to around 9,500 young people aged 16-19 with disabilities each year and allows them to gain a range of life skills and employability qualifications.

The fabulous VMF perfectly sums up Randy’s vision about the club contributing back to the local community, from the young people from less privileged backgrounds who all live within 10 miles of Villa Park gaining practical hospitality qualifications to the use of local suppliers for the majority of the food used, not just in VMF but throughout Villa Park. VMF was recently recognised at the Football Hospitality Awards with a Special Achievement Award going to all the students, Frances Cash, one of the students, won the Star of the Future Award, and the project also won in the Sustainable Award Category. Building on this reputation for sustainability, the Club worked along side St George’s Community Hub recently to get a local area of land up and running as an allotment which will supply fruit and vegetables to the community kitchen projects including VMF and Villa Vitality.

I think as fans we should be very proud of the work that the club does in the community, most of which isn’t widely publicised, and support the various projects and fundraising opportunities wherever we can regardless of our opinions of the chairman or manager. Ultimately it is not them that benefit from any of these ventures, it’s our local community, and it disappoints me when I see VMF half empty and various fundraising efforts getting largely ignored. The club does great work in the community, but it is our community and they can’t do it without the support of the fans.

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